380 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



Then a boat forty feet long, propelled by a double screw, at- 

 tained a speed of ten miles an hour on the Thames. The 

 Lords of the Admiralty were passengers on the trial trip ; but 

 seeing was not believing with them, and, while they witnessed 

 the successful performance of the craft, they declared that no 

 vessel could be steered if the power was applied at the stern, 

 and would have nothing to do with it. Captain Robert J. 

 Stockton, of New Jersey, afterward United States Senator, was 

 visiting England at the time on business connected with the 

 Delaware and Raritan Canal, and, witnessing the performance 

 of the propeller vessel, ordered one built for himself and 

 named after him. It was sent across the Atlantic, and when 

 it reached New York the freedom of the city was given to its 

 captain. This vessel was employed for many years in the 

 waters of the United States, and, passing into the possession 

 of the Messrs. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., was known as the 

 tug New Jersey till 1866, when, or about that time, it was 

 broken up. 



On the invitation of Captain Stockton, Captain Ericsson re- 

 signed, in 1839, the position of Superintending Engineer of the 

 Eastern Counties Railroad in England, and removed to the 

 United States. By the aid of Captain Stockton's influence he 

 obtained a commission to build a steam-propeller frigate, the 

 Princeton, for the United States Navy. Before this vessel was 

 finished, in 1844, his screw h^d been placed in forty-one com- 

 mercial vessels of the United States. Another new and valu- 

 able principle was introduced in the Princeton that of apply- 

 ing the power directly to th shaft turning the screw. Erics- 

 son's propellers with direct-acting engines below the water line 

 were also applied in the French frigate Pomona in 1843, and 

 in the British frigate Amphion in 1844. The Princeton was 

 fitted with a twelve-inch wrought-iron gun, forged after Erics- 

 son's designs, and strengthened with bands, which had been 

 tested ; and with a heavier gun ordered by Captain Stockton, 

 called the Peacemaker. This gun, when fired Ericsson's 

 friends claim, against his advice during a visit of President 

 Tyler and members of his Cabinet to the Princeton, February 

 28, 1844, burst, killing the Secretaries of State and the Navy, 

 and Colonel Gardiner, of New York. 



From the year 1826 Ericsson had entertained the idea of 

 contriving an " impregnable and partially submerged instrument 



